Plan for Improved Student Learning and Assessment

Instructional Support

The Center provides instructional support for faculty members through education, training, and consultation in instructional delivery and the assessment of student learning outcomes. The Center sponsors workshops, assembles a collection of reading materials related to evaluation and instructional activities, and provides consultation on request. Consultation includes individual conferences with faculty members and presentations to entire departments.

Assessment Fellows Program
The assessment fellows program provided faculty member participation in the development of a comprehensive program. Faculty members who participated in this program had a reduced teaching load so that they could devote a significant portion of their time to an assessment project. Each year the Center requested applications for the fellows program. Fellows competed by submitting a proposal for a project. The Center provided office space and materials for the projects.

Fellows worked on projects to coordinate and oversee the development of selected department assessment plans. They drafted surveys, developed a campus wide assessment program for general education, and investigated the development of local assessments. Fellows conducted comparative evaluations of assessment techniques and investigated available assessment options.

Writing Retreat
The Center organized and coordinated a writing retreat in June 1990. Approximately forty faculty, staff, and administrators from nearly 25 different departments participated. The major purpose of the retreat was to begin laying the foundation for an emphasis across the campus on writing to learn. The retreat developed and expanded faculty member expertise and commitment to student writing. Activities illustrated how writing can enhance the teaching and learning process. This retreat became an annual event and a total of approximately 150 faculty participated in the retreats through 1993.

Liaison Workshops
Representatives from departments met for a series of workshops to provide a forum of faculty members to suggest, discuss, and critique assessment strategies, methods, measures, problems, and mandates. The workshops ensured that information about measures was available to departments, introduced North Central Accreditation criteria, and provided examples of good practices for an assessment program.

Faculty Workshops
Workshops for faculty members were an important means of providing optional course related activities for improvement of academic programs and teaching. Several workshops concentrated on the writing to learn theme. Examples of topics included writing across the curriculum, evaluating writing, and assigning writing. Other workshops provided strategies for implementing active learning in the classroom, getting ideas across, using journals, and responding to substance abuse.

Recent support activities were teleconferences on the learning organization and on how students learn and teachers teach. Planned orientation sessions related to teaching will target new teachers and graduate teaching assistants.